ace band yo

as i am on the band suggestion kick i will also say that the twin cities group: the nancy drew crew is really worth listening  to if you dig wack political white hip hop. 

listen to "college inc."

  http://www.myspace.com/nancydrewcrew  

two films that must be watched

SHELTER: A SQUATUMENTARY

"With skyrocketing property values, rent and home ownership have become unaffordable at best, and impossible at worst. Thus people all over the world are reclaiming housing as a basic human right by continuing the tradition of squatting. This documentary film explores the squatting movement in the East Bay from 2004 to 2007."

 

SURFING THE WASTE

A musical documentary about dumpster diving. so darn funny. and reminded me of my pals in nyc. look for the bike powered blender.

both of these should be available at your local info shop/interesting persons house. and you should borrow them.

old health

I was reading some articles on Irish health care. it is such a messy issue but in the 1970s the Catholic Church still controlled much of the system; they set up and ran most of the country’s hospitals and clinics.  They ran it as a private system that a citizen could voluntarily join.  In 1971, the Republic of Ireland created a system of eight health boards.  These boards were responsible for operating in specific areas; Ireland was divided into regions and put under jurisdiction of a chief executive officer of the board.  Reform of this system was needed due to the politicization of the appointment of its members. Officers were chosen based on their political affiliations and as a result medical decisions were often weighed on how they affected parties rather than their benefit to the community and patients.

 

who needs health

The Adelaide Hospital Society, published a report in april, which suggested the development of a “carefully-designed comprehensive social health insurance system in Ireland [that] would provide equal access to medical care for every citizen in Ireland based on need and not financial means,” Hunter, Niall. “Call for new health funding scheme.” 16/04/2008

The government would have a separate tax for this program, and the amount required by each citizen would be based on income. If an individual were unable to pay, the government would subsidize them. 

i dont like communism but this is interesting

propaganda posters are a far better way to convey messages. i guess we sort of have them- billboards. but i really wish there were still such amazing political posters, particularly like the soviet ones. It is hard to motivate a struggling and dilapidated country.  the graphic posters, with bright colors, showing the resilience of the Red Army and idealized images of Russian workers rising above capitalism, were motivational to the workers and the soldiers. 

some thoughts on red

i really am interested in color effects in propaganda. 

“In the 1940s, the Russian scientist S V Krakov provided support for Lüscher's theories by establishing that the colour red stimulates the sympathetic part of the autonomic nervous system, while blue stimulates the parasympathetic part. These findings were confirmed in 1958 by Robert Gerard of the USA, who found that red was disturbing to anxious or tense subjects, while blue had a calming effect. Red produced feelings of arousal and blue produced feelings of calm, tranquility and well being.”

1936 El pueblo se alza como un vendaval

please read this website. http://sindios.info/iniciosin.html

more importantly listen to the magnificent music that is my life's distraction.

i dont really like this man

but i like architecture. thomas jefferson’s cultural and educational beliefs were modeled in his creation of the university of virginia.  in the school there is a balance of open lawn space with academic buildings and housing. the library was built as a version of the Pantheon in Rome. a unique, and controversial, structure at the school is the Rotunda, which is located in the center where traditionally a church would have been built.

sproul brawl

oh and i do nto think that, in his later life, mario savio necessarily "sold out." the free speech movement, which he was a significant participant, was about rejecting the policies of the berkeley administration. there was not an anti-faculty belief. 

the higher ups at the university objected to allowing students to demonstrate and drum up support for off campus and especially out of state political issues. particularly the voter registration and anti-discrimination work in mississippi and the rest of the south. the school also had a strictly two party affiliation policy, so projects (demonstrations, tabeling, etc) had to go through either the democrat or republican clubs. 

there was faculty support of the FSM because their rights were infringed upon as well, (the loyalty oath, etc). they were being used to keep the students cogs for the regents. they should have risen up sooner, sure. 

i think that if anything, savio becoming a professor, was rather logical. he was not fighting against all authority (whether or not i believe he should have been is another issue). the movement was a fight against abuse of power 

and abraham lincoln is a tainted, tainted man.

for all the revolutions

ive been reading about the two major revolutions in russia in 1917. The first was the February Revolution and the second, the October Revolution. the revolutions were in response to the years of overbearing monarchies.  people wanted a government that they could be a part of and participate in. when the revolutions were growing, the government was suffering from wwi. there were still food shortages and high prices for basic ingredients.  people thought the Tsar, II, didnt understand their plight and they blamed him for the economic issues. the peasants were also moving to the industrialized cities in large numbers, creating a more centralized labor force.  the workers in the cities lived in crowded and unsanitary housing, working in factories that were dangerous and were paid insufficiently.  a benefit to moving to the city was that the peasants were exposed to politics and the realization that they could have power over the owning class through strikes. the feb revolution was sporadic and not organized; it started on the 23^rd in the capital, Petrograd.  The factory workers walked out to demonstrate against the shortage of bread and by the 25^th most every industry in the city had been shut down.  students, teachers, and white-collar workers also joined the demonstrators. The police could not handle the protesters and many of the soldiers ordered to shoot at the demonstrators refused to fire.  soon after, the Tsar abdicated his thrown under the pressure. 

Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik party, led the October Revolution.  the second revolution was based on commie ideology and the writings of Lenin and Karl Marx.  the revolution ended the short reign of the Provincial Parliamentary Government, which governed in between revolutions.  multiple councils made up of local peasants and workers replaced the provincial parliament. the ending goal of the Revolution was for an economic system that would not be based on class and social status.  it would be one where the people hold a common ownership of the means of production.

i am a that

the other day i was walking home at 12;45am from developing photos and saw a little brown dog. he was shivering and looked friendly (as i think all dogs do). i whistled to him and he trotted across the street and cautiously approached me. we bonded and then i started to head home. he followed me for nearly three blocks. running up to store entrances, smelling for food and then running back to me. 

i started to think he was going to join my merry household. there was a collar around his neck but there was only a name and address, no phone number. My plan was to feed him and let him stay with me until i could figure out where his house was to return him.

then he ran into the open door of a bar we were passing. i was somewhat obligated to rescue him. i explained to the bouncer (who was running around the bar trying to catch my excited friend) what had happened and how i had ended up with this short shadow. surprisingly the guy was super nice and told me to wait outside and he would look for a phone book so we could look up the name on the dog tag. 

For the next twenty minuets at least fifteen bargoers became involved with this little doggie's life. We could not find a resident phone book, so someone tried googleing it on his phone, only to have his phone die in the process. everyone had ideas on how to figure out the owner's location. 

part of the problem was that so many of these well wishing individuals were rather intoxicated and all set on how this dog was going to make it home even though none of them had even heard of the street.

we even asked a kind taxi driver who stopped to pick someone up, and he could not find the street on his maps.

the whole time i was holding on to my new friend and he just sat contentedly, happy with all the attention.

at long last some guy found the street on his phone map. his friend had a car and they said they would take the pup to his home. 

to be exact, the friend said that they would take the dog, "but not that" (meaning me). he was kind of drunk and i dont think he thought i was close enough to hear. i thought it was rather humorous. i am a that.

Burn as long as you can, until the end of the world.

http://www.kalashni.net/homepageBarra.htm

Music is a gun loaded with future

Under a white sky condemned to be a still presence


Music is a gun loaded with future it’s a bloody cloud, it’s a clear promise,


A blow shot in the middle of the breast,

Music is a gun loaded with future. It’s a shining fist.

 

Blood is spilling over the chords, from wounded wrists by sharp ice.

Throats grasped by the great cold, the grooves of a dirty vinyl.


Scream as you can, music is a gun loaded with future!


Burn as long as you can, until the end of the world.

It’s a Molotov made with cries,

thrown from a sideral hand


Over the people busy in christmas shopping.


It’s something written with red spray and evanescent borders


Music is blood that you have in your veins.


It’s a desperate fight !

 

Take a holed cloth and a neck made of glass,


Pour petrol until ¾,


Then a broad gesture ploughs the clear sky


Just a row, a target, a look and a fire that change…

my new fave band

sin dios is an anarcho-punk band from spain who started out playing shows in squatted houses. there songs are about resistance and liberation of all peoples. good stuff.

one of the videos i like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_geqOUKH2U

even better

http://greekpostpunk.blogspot.com/

i have no idea what they are saying

i just discovered this '80s greek punk band ausschwitss. i do not speak greek so i have no idea what their songs are about but i like the bass. haha. they only have a few songs surviving their break up, which can be found at: http://www.myspace.com/ausschwitz

sin dios

Casa okupada, Casa encantada

Somos los duendes que habitan en las casa abandonadas,

La propiedad privada es un robo, y lo nuestro arte de magia.

Una casa okupada es una casa encantada,

Cuando haya un desalojo, aparecemos en otra.

El hechizo está en hacerlo todo con tus propias manos,

Convirtiendo cuatro muros en espacios liberados.

Una casa okupada es una casa encantada,

Cuando haya un desalojo, aparecemos en otra.

¡¡eh, burgués especulador!! Vigila bien tus propiedades

"our newest endangered species"

I was reading the blog, Bike Snob NYC, today. there was a long post about how messengers are a dying culture. I liked the ideas on how to keep them alive. This was one of my favorites: 

"If you work in an office for a large company, there’s a constant trickle of money that you can re-direct into the deserving pocket of a bike messenger. How? Messenger stuff unnecessarily! For example, every day people waste millions of man-hours instant messaging each-other during business hours. While you’re burning your employer’s money you might as well help out a starving messenger too. Instead of IMing, just messenger Post-It notes back and forth. Your average exchange with a friend about what you had for lunch, how stupid your boss is, or how much your new underwear itch is good for at least twelve messenger round-trips. And that’s money he can spend on essentials like food, rent, and tattoo time."

enjoy more here:

the wabash cannonball calls

i need to migrate. this winter business is not my bag.  i left for last winter and now am reminded why.